NESSUS

MYTHOLOGY OF NESSUS

To understand Nessus' mythology, we need to re-introduce Heracles
(Hercules.) (Hercules figures into the stories of just about every centaur,
it seems.)

In one story, Heracles was very attracted to a young virgin by the name
of Deianera, and so he slept with her....and then agreed to marry her. In
another story (which may not conflict with the former story at all,)
Heracles married Deianera because, while he was in the underworld, he
promised Deianera's dead brother that he would. Anyway, Eurytion (another
Centaur...possibly one of the as yet unamed ones) asked for Deianera's hand
in marriage, and her father consented (perhaps he was afraid of saying no to
a Centaur?) Well, Heracles found out, burst angrily into the wedding
celebration, killed Eurytion, and took Deianera to be his bride.

I am not sure if Heracles was on his honeymoon or not, but he and his new
wife had to cross a river that was overflowing. Nessus, according to the
myth, offered to ferry Heracles' wife across a river.....and when he reached
the other side, tried to rape her. Heracles, quite naturally enraged, shot
Nessus with a poison arrow. As Nessus lay dying, he told Heracles' wife
that, should Heracles ever be unfaithful, she could bring him back to her by
placing the blood-soaked cloak (now on Nessus' back) over Heracles'
shoulders. (In some of the more graphic stories, though, it was a mixture of
his blood and semen that Nessus told Deianera to scoop up....and to put on a
cloak one day should Heracles stray in his affections.) Years later, she
remembered Nessus' words, and did precisely that. But Nessus lied....on his
death bed, he wanted revenge. The cloak caused Heracles to burn up with
flames of magic, and he was in terrible pain. Hera finally relented, allowed
his physical body to die on earth, and translated him to Mount Olympus where
he was made one of the gods for all time. (Something to ponder....it was
Nessus' poisonous act that, in actuality, healed the feud between Hera and
Heracles.)

It is interesting that, many years earlier, Zeus had told Heracles that
he would be killed by a dead enemy!

Robert von Heeren just added this additional information he found about
Nessus' mythology:

"Pausanias 10.38.2 [paus. 10.38.2]"[10.38.2] Others believe that
Nessus, ferrying on the Evenus, was wounded by Heracles, but not killed on
the spot, making his escape to this country; when he died his body rotted
unburied, imparting a foul stench to the atmosphere of the place. The
third story says that the exhalations from a certain river, and its very
water, have a peculiar smell; the fourth, that asphodel grows in great
abundance and when in flower...because of the smell.

NESSUS' ORBIT

Nessus links up the orbits of Saturn and Pluto. Once upon a time, Saturn
was thought to be the last planet out, and was equated with endings, and
even with death. These two certainly have a lot in common, don't they? We
have just begun to explore the implications of this, so we can certainly use
your feedback!On its way outward from perihelion to aphelion, Nessus
crosses first Uranus' and then Neptune's orbit, and on its way back inward,
it again crosses them. Here are the most recent such dates in its orbit:

Nessus reaches Perihelion March 7, 1870Crossing Uranus on the
way out Nov 14, 1881Crossing Neptune on the way out Sept 22,
1899Nessus reaches Aphelion Dec 30, 1930Crossing Neptune on the
way inward Apr 8, 1961Crossing Uranus on the way inward Nov 3,
1979Nessus reaches Perihelion Jan 28, 1992

NESSUS IN ACTION

Let me relate two brief stories from my own experience.

When Nessus was transiting my eighth house, it reached opposition to my
natal Nessus. At that time, I was living with Sandra, and she was pregnant
with our child. When the opposition was exact, it also was only minutes away
from exact conjunction to Sandra's Neptune. At this time, we received the
news that the baby had Triploidy.....an extra set of chromosomes......and
that most babies with this condition died in the womb, sometimes
jeopardizing the life of the mother. Of the few that survived, not one lived
more than five months, and all had to stay on life support. We had to make
the decision to induce labor, and have the baby born early, stillborn. It
was just about the most painful decision either of ever had to make.

When Nessus was stationary over my ninth house Moon, the woman I loved
left the United States to go spend a month living with a man in another
country....a man she was considering moving in with. I was so full of
hurt/anger, especially at the other man, and wanted more than anything to
lash out at him, even if only verbally.

Both of these events changed my life, and both forced me to reach down
deep within myself. There was a lot of pain in both situations, but in
another way, they both were a catharsis, which helped me know myself better,
and to accept that there were thoughts/feelings I had which I had previously
tried to repress as 'bad'.

On Amable's blog, Transneptunian Astrology, there are some interesting observations about Nessus:
According to dynamical systems theory, all centaurs are chaotic, but Nessus has one of the lowest Lyapunov exponent, because Saturn and the Kuiper belt are both limit cicle atractors, and the diferences are only between the personal or material and the transpersonal or spiritual dimensions.
Integration of scientist and spy
By the time of the discovery of Nessus, a few years after the end of the cold war (1990-1991), began a collaboration between scientists (Saturn) and spies (Kuiper belt), as the militar satellites began to be used partially for scientific purposes, studing nature and ecosystems. They are antagonistic, because science requires the publication of the sources for replication of the investigation, something not allowed by the clandestinely of spies. At that time, also started the TV serie "X-Files" (1992), where Fox Malder and Dana Scully, from the scientific police, are the investigators of the X-Files (unsolved cases, usually involving paranormal phenomena) and many times they come to meet with the CIA matters.
United aganist racism
In the TV serie "X-Files" (1992), inicially Dana Scully was asigned to the x-files with the objective of refute Fox Mulder's theories, but once she gets in the investigation and the truth of the evidence, she turns in upholding Mulder infront of their cheifs.
Nessus has the ability to perform the Higher-Self will in an inmutable way. No matter what are doing the rest of people, Nessus does what He thinks is correct, like in the movie "Schindler's List" (1993), "Philadelphia" (1993) and "Red Corner" (1997).
Military activity
Nessus combines the 'high artificial intelligence' of the Kuiper belt with the 'physical intelligence' of Saturn. This combination is typical of activities were physical action requires complex thinking processes, especially the teamwork coordination, like the cyborg Motoko Kusanagui as the especial forces in the movie "Ghost in the Shell" (1995).
Nessus actions are performed without emotional interference, like the crushing crystal in the face for family revenge in the movie "Perdita Durango" (1997). The will of Nessus is very strong, once the decision is made, there is no turning back, like in the movie "Perdita Durango" (1997), or at the end of the movie "Sommersby" (1993), where the protagonist stands for his personal sentence.

Juan Antonio Revilla, one of the members of my "Chiron and Friends" list,
has written some remarkably perceptive essays on the Centaurs. In "The
Redemption Of Nessus" he writes:

"What are the dynamics of Nessus that manifests in a monstrous,
poisonous way? The vulnerability of Deianira, Nessus lust, and Heracles
rawness are part of the same cruel story. If I take Heracles as "raw"
humanity, then the "bad blood" associated with Nessus is the consequence
or continuation of the cruelty and violence that Heracles represents. What
Nessus does is leave Heracles violence and cruelty naked, which means he
could be the cure, for example, not only the disease. Like an homeopathic
remedy or a vaccine, the disease has to come out in order to heal
it..."

Josh Payne is another very perceptive astrologer. In one of Josh's posts,
he talked of the connection between Nessus and the Frankenstein monster:

"though he may be a hideous monster, Nessus has a heart, has
fragility. Frankenstein just wants to be accepted and loved (especially by
his creator)..."and that the Frankenstein story was"...an
extremely touching portrayal of the plight of the deformed outcast,
especially the scene in which he is talking to the blind man... The words
he utters (I don't remember exactly), "people are afraid... because I am
so.... ugly" express such a tremendous pain, which embodies how hard it is
for us to say something like 'I am so ugly'."

Juan writes, in response to Josh's words:

"These very few words of Josh are the best I have ever read about
Nessus." "Frankenstein longed for love and sympathy, but he became
something dark and destructive, inspiring only horror and loathing.
Nevertheless he had a human heart, he was our creation, a part of
ourselves that is socially despised. His creator (which is his
mirror-image), trespassed the boundaries of life, death, and social
morality."

One other thing before I leave the subject of Nessus. Perhaps we can
learn something from this quote from Carl Jung, from "Concerning Rebirth":
"Every calling or profession has its own characteristic persona. It is easy
to study these things nowadays, when the photographs of public personalities
so frequently appear in the press. A certain kind of behaviour is forced on
them by the world, and professional people endeavour to come up to these
expectations. Only, the danger is that they become identical with their
personas-the professor with his text-book, the tenor with his voice. Then
the damage is done; henceforth he lives exclusively against the background
of his own biography. . . . The garment of Deianeira has grown fast to his
skin, and a desperate decision like that of Heracles is needed if he is to
tear this Nessus shirt from his body and step into the consuming fire of the
flame of immortality, in order to transform himself into what he really is.
One could say, with a little exaggeration, that the persona is that which in
reality one is not, but which oneself as well as others think one is."

What do you think?

NESSUS AND CELEBRITIES

One way to explore the meaning of a body is to explore its aspects in the charts of celebrities. If you'd like to see who has Nessus conjunct their Sun, or square their Mars, please go to www.zanestein.com/celebn.htm.